South Ossetians Complain to Court

By REUTERS

Published: October 7, 2008

The European Court of Human Rights has received nearly 2,000 applications from South Ossetians complaining of illegal treatment at the hands of Georgia, the president of the court, Jean-Paul Costa, said Monday.

The complaints, filed in the two months since Russia and Georgia went to war over South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia, on Aug. 7, underline the extent of the legal minefields each country is trying to lay for the other.

They follow applications by Georgia to the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights against Russia, accusing it of war crimes, including ethnic purges.

Russia has also made complaints to international courts against Georgia, and Russia's foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said last month that Russia would help any citizens of South Ossetia wanting to make complaints against Georgia.